On Sunday night - before my sinuses joined the writer's strike - I fancied myself a Rockwell-ian protagonist. In my crappy efficiency apartment, I laid leisurely in an armchair, reading Yeats and watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I also made laborious use of the first-person singular and listened to a new Bavu Blakes song, which arrived in my inbox that night.

For every week in ’08, Bavu will release a new song to his email list. This week marked the second installment; over Lauryn Hill’s “Sweetest Thing” beat, Bavu kicks around pop culture references as vastly disparate as Tony Romo and I Am Legend (kinda zing!). It’s light-hearted, as a lot of the 52 flows probably will be, though I can foresee these getting more serious as, for one, we get deeper into the election year. What’s certain is there will be one each week, and if this sounds cool to you, you should find your way onto his list. He won’t flood your inbox (unlike some people, Mr. Obama). One song per email, one email per week.

On that political note, briefly: if you are a Democrat and your mind is still not made up, you should subscribe to all of the candidates’ email lists. It’s an easy way to stay abreast of what’s going on, and occasionally they even talk about political issues.

Back to rap music – this Sunday, aside from emailing verses to folks, Bavu will be hosting AustinSurreal’s inaugural concert at Flamingo Cantina. Grimy Styles is headlining, with support from PPT, Zeale 32, and Gerald G (and possibly Chalie Boy, as hinted here last week, but who knows).

Every reason is a good one here. Seeing the three dudes of PPT live should be note-worthily ill. Not that the grain in the South is necessarily bad, but PPT goes against it; they aren’t trap-happy and they don’t have to break their songs in strip clubs. Their hip-hop tends towards the warm and bright and psychedelic. Unscarred by pretension and self-importance, PPT is one of the rare rap acts that can claim to be truly refreshing on the ears.

Gerald G is also destined to figuratively show up on Sunday. Last week I mentioned Rapid Ric’s Whut It Dew Radio mixtape, which came out around Thanksgiving and prominently features Gerald killing four freestyles. Listen to one a few times over and you don’t even remember what Young Jeezy or Rocko or Shawty Lo originally said on the beat. You just remember how aggressively Gerald attacked the verse and how he somehow finished it on a higher plateau.

Between Gerald’s verses, the tape rotates through a pretty meaty cache of new, mostly Texas-related tracks. The “Paper Planes” remix kicks off the set, which is highlighted by new material from Scarface, Project Pat, Lil’ Wayne, and Trae, as well as three great Pimp C verses. The most adept is his spot on Gucci Mane’s severely underplayed “I Know Why.” While they can’t really be transcribed here or repeated at the dinner table, Pimp’s first four lines deserve a few listens, for both rhythm and humor’s sake and as a reminder of how distinctly he took over songs.

When Rapid Ric’s album drops later this year, much more ink will spill on the particulars of his artistic approach. For now, go listen to the mixtape and show up at Flamingo Cantina on Sunday and get on all sorts of email lists, especially Bavu’s.

Plugs not drugs.

Cedar fever for life.